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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26625901">Picking Up the Pieces</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corehealer/pseuds/Corehealer'>Corehealer</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Burden and Belonging: Sarah's Shadow - Emet-Selch/WoL Ship Shadowbringers and Ongoing FFXIV Fanfiction [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ascian - Fandom, Final Fantasy XIV, Shadowbringers - Fandom</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Allagan empire, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Azeyma, F/M, Gen, Memory, Other, Reconciliation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 06:55:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,630</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26625901</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corehealer/pseuds/Corehealer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A continuation of Burden of Belonging; I plan to make this a series of works stemming from that starting point. Something that will grow with the development of Final Fantasy XIV and Shadowbringers/ensuing patches and expansions, starting from the 5.3 MSQ consensus point and it's revelations.</p><p>This chapter features Emet-Selch and a FWoL (at this point a self insertion of the author's character), in their settling into the reality of their shared situation and the long process of reconciliation ahead. Also sets up the next chapter, which will feature her effort at bringing Emet into the mortal world, and the world she shares with many longtime friends and allies. As before, some embellishments and heavy themes, as will remain consistent themes from here on out.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Solus zos Galvus | Emet-Selch/Warrior of Light</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Burden and Belonging: Sarah's Shadow - Emet-Selch/WoL Ship Shadowbringers and Ongoing FFXIV Fanfiction [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1913674</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Picking Up the Pieces</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She placed the quill down, and sipped the last of her tea before reading out the lines she had written:</p><p>‘<strong>Each of us should paint ourselves in colour, dress in divinity, for we are divine creatures blessed of will, and given eyes to see</strong>.’</p><p>‘<strong>Stardust come to bask in the light of its siblings, and one day shepherd them to greater things</strong>.’</p><p>‘<strong>Memory, locked in the medium of a black hole, to become known again in ages to come</strong>.’</p><p>From the Azem stone, Emet-Selch began to speak.</p><p>“<em>Such strange sentiments, your mind conjures up hero. As alike as you are to how you were in our day, you yet still continue to find ways to surprise me with such… artful insights. For every way in which you remind me of the past, I am still reminded that you are not quite the same as you were</em>.”</p><p>“And I should think that would be a positive development, myself, soul sundering aside. What experiences I have retained and limitations I have overcome have made me a better person. More able to meet new challenges on the morrow, and fulfill my role. Mayhap I have always been this way, and it has only become more pronounced with time. And now, more obvious.”</p><p>“<em>So you say, hero. The volcano incident was borne of unconventional thinking, after all. But certainly, you have ever had a mind keen towards new experiences</em>.”</p><p>A pause.</p><p>“For every memory that returns, I believe we both come closer to realizing how much things have changed. How much I’ve changed.”</p><p>“<em>It is only to be expected, I suppose. For my part, my feelings for you have not changed, but perhaps, have grown more in the discovery of the new</em>.<em> But above all else, I am simply relieved to have you back, in any form, in any state.</em>”</p><p>She smiled.</p><p>“Likewise.”</p><p>She continued to read:</p><p>‘<strong>An omnipresent soul knows no boundary, save for time</strong>.’</p><p>‘<strong>All the time in the world but no threshold to cross</strong>.’</p><p>‘<strong>No wisdom to savour, truth being often relative</strong>.’</p><p>‘<strong>I would sing their songs, long into the night, and in the morning cradle them close at hand</strong>.’</p><p>“<em>Never enough time in the day to do all you wish, and save all you can, hmm?” </em></p><p>“I only wish I could be in all places at once.”</p><p><em>“Your compatriots must find you such an oddity</em>.”</p><p>“I don’t speak as often as I’d like with them about how I feel. I prefer to be alone and process such things alone. They have enough of their own troubles, and in many ways my burdens are unique.”</p><p>“<em>What about now</em>?”</p><p>“What about now? You mean this?” She gestured towards the stone on her desk.</p><p>“<em>Yes.</em>”</p><p>“You are different. You know this. If anything, I can only struggle to imagine what living millennia as you have must have been like. It is a wonder you didn’t end up like Lahabrea, or Elidibus.”</p><p>“<em>I cannot speak to their circumstances as easily as it may seem; though we spent those millenia in pursuit of the same goal, and occasionally had the company of reascended friends, so much time passed that we simply began to lose ourselves in our work, in our roles, in the passing of the ages. Seldom did we find the time to speak, or reminisce. To do so was only to invite a lingering pain more profound than words can speak of.”</em></p><p>The Azem stone brightened for a moment.</p><p><em>“Lahabrea was already ancient even by the standards of our halcyon era, and his was a mind that ever tended towards pushing the limits of discovery and the extremes of life. He leaped at first into our task with relish… but it ended up costing him his sanity, year over year</em>.”</p><p>The stone seemed to change hues for a brief moment, dimming in continence.</p><p>“<em>And Elidibus… well, you saw plenty of what happened to him yourself. The young man I once knew, so full of eagerness and potential, died a long time ago; the person you saw was an echo of duty and the will of a primal. In the years following the Sixth Umbral Calamity, I scarcely recognized him as a friend and ally</em>.”</p><p>“I wish I had been given the chance to learn of all this sooner, and saved them.”</p><p>“<em>None of us was ever going to be saved, given what you have shown me in turn, and given what has been done. Not in the conventional sense, at least. But.. perhaps with time, we can make a better legacy for them than to fall into oblivion completely</em>.”</p><p>“Assuming they yet remain dead. I already told you about my theory concerning the Tower; and Nidhogg’s Eye, sealing tight the memory of the Speaker.”</p><p>“<em>Fine theories, certainly.</em> <em>And not unlike how you now seal me inside this memory of your station</em>?”</p><p>“A willing participant to my deepest thoughts and desires, who placed themselves there at my mercy. T’was not I who put you in there, Hades.”</p><p>“<em>Even so; I am as much a captive audience now as I am a willing participant in this. And, listening to you speak, I think that your burdens are not so unique as you imagine them to be. So tell me true, hero. You hold an Ascian in your hand. How does it feel to share such depths of knowledge and feeling with a former foe? To hold them so close as to crush them in an instant if you wished</em>?”</p><p>“Stranger by far than any sight I’ve seen or secret uncovered, nor one I could have ever predicted. But I’d take you over continuing to be alone and kept from my past any day. You are an irreplaceable link to my past, and an irreplaceable part of my heart.”</p><p>“<em>So certain now I have no more desire to manipulate you</em>?”</p><p>“I’ve seen enough of you and your soul to believe. I trust you.”</p><p>“<em>Trusting the Angel of Truth. What a novel concept</em>!”</p><p>She smiled, and wrote a few more lines:</p><p>‘<strong>Truth is an angel, but a fickle creature</strong>.’</p><p>‘<strong>In silence, is he made known, and in death, is he made full and stark in contrast to the dark. And the light</strong>.’</p><p>‘<strong>Let him sleep</strong>.’</p><p>“<em>I shan’t argue with that. Till we speak next, my dear</em>.”</p><p>Silence. She placed the quill down and gently stroked the Azem stone for a moment before lifting herself from her desk.</p><p>The shoebill was sleeping on a perch in the kitchen, made of unwashed dishes from many nights spent in her room, writing and speaking with Emet-Selch. By this point, she had drifted from reminiscence and record into fondness for the memories of good moments, long lost. Speaking to him again, she was able to learn much and more of the old world that was, and in turn help him to see more clearly the world as it was now.</p><p>And, from this process of shared discovery, she had drifted further still towards waxing poetic. Now at conversation’s end, her mind was incongruous and uncertain of the hour, only knowing it to once again be night, judging by the darkness outside. She went to the window.</p><p>There were less stars this evening, as clouds drifted more numerous and brought to her mind the image of rain tomorrow. Perhaps it would be better to take him to the Source first, weather permitting there, to introduce him to her now returned friends, before acclimating the people of the First. She only worried that more would recognize him for what he had been, as Urianger had. She had circled that fact in her mind over and over. Revenant’s Toll, full of it’s share of Garlean defectors like Cid at the Ironworks, and refugees from their atrocities and conquests. They would react poorly to this unthinkable spectacle. A man who should be dead, revealed now to be alive, bound in a strange stone, wearing a young form, in love with their most beloved friend and ally. Their saviour. And not at all how they imagined him to be. Even with what Varis spoke of in Ghimlyt becoming more common knowledge with time. She could only imagine their reaction, but she knew.</p><p>She knew he needed to be made known to them eventually. She needed to explain the truth of things as best she could. He meant too much to her life now, and to her future. Her plans, formulating, on how to deal with Garlemald. His misbegotten legacy. And a great deal else besides.</p><p>She sighed. “Cid is going to be the most interesting reaction, I suspect. Gods, what will he think?”</p><p>The Empire was fraying at its edges under the weight of ambition, discordant purpose, and disputes over the future. Even now reports were surfacing from Riol in the Stones and from others crossing the border; rebellions were becoming more widespread, and independent tendencies in the various legates and legions was becoming more pronounced. Who knew for certain yet what was coming, or what was occurring in Garlemald itself. Her greatest fear would be for some hint of his being alive returning there, and causing who knew what new discord and strife, not least of which when the precious prize of his clones yet remained there. Was Zenos in charge now? Would he even care to be?</p><p>She thought for a time on this, and that man who had called her his friend and enemy before slitting his throat before her. A man who was, in a technical sense, Emet’s great-grandson. Someone Emet had not yet deigned to speak of with her; she needed to remember to ask him about Zenos soon.</p><p>She would need to return to Bozja soon, and take the measure of this Empire, such as it yet persisted. It would be some time yet before she could make the journey to Garlemald herself, and find whatever awaited her. She stretched.</p><p>“Time to rest, I think. I’ve had too many late nights. Tomorrow, we will figure out how to break the state of things to them.”</p><p>She retired to her bed, and there slept peacefully for a time.</p><p> </p><p>***</p><p> </p><p>With the morning sun peeking out from behind building clouds of rain, she retired from the Pendants, casually greeting passersby in the Musica and Dossal Plaza as she walked from her room towards the great edifice of the Crystal Tower. She smiled at Lyna when she caught a brief glimpse of her leaving the Tower, exchanging kind words and well wishes from G’raha as they passed by one another. She hoped one day to find a means of linking this place to the Source, so that each world could benefit from the other, not least of which being the persons of Lyna and Ryne themselves. For the time being, however, this dream seemed impossible.</p><p>As if latching on to this unspoken desire, Emet resumed his activity, bringing the stone to life and appearing at her side in his aethereal guise. Few of the denizens of the Crystarium spent any length of time within the Tower’s cavernous expanses, restricted as it was even after the Exarch’s departure. G’raha had been sure to keep it’s more dangerous secrets safe from untested hands, and Lyna had taken on this burden in earnest, perhaps in part out of a desire to hold on to what memories she had left of him. She allowed the Warrior of Darkness free leave to come and go, but few others.</p><p>As the doors to the Dossal Plaza closed behind them, Emet walked the halls and stairs with his reunited love, the both of them now largely alone.</p><p>“<em>You truly care for so many as if they were your kin</em>.”</p><p>“I have always been so, and I see no reason why I would ever be any other way. No matter the pain it brings me when I am inevitably let down. I still hope for the best, in them. And for myself.”</p><p>“<em>You always were an empathic sort, even in our day. Such virtues were much rarer, less valued, in later eras, such as that of Allag, my first foray into nation building on a grand scale…</em>” He gestured his gloved hands hither and yore in all directions, as they took in the sights of blue and gold. Crystals humming in every direction with untold power. Intricately embossed floors and walls, linking organically grown forms with the stylistic sensibilities of a long gone empire.</p><p>“Unei and Doga gave me such an impression, as did Xande.”</p><p>“<em>Hmm… Xande. I was… hasty in my appraisal of that man, when first I met him. I chose to place him in the role I would later take on for myself in designing Garlemald, but he proved to be too weakened by his own fear of death to be of any long term assistance. Too unstable</em>.”</p><p>They began to ascend another flight of stairs as he furrowed his brow in memory.</p><p>“<em>He was largely useful as a means to an end; bringing the Source as a whole into a single nation which could, with time, ensure a steadier stream of circumstances to enable Rejoinings. Or at least, that was the plan…</em>”</p><p>“Before they started going to space, you mean.”</p><p>“<em>And the accelerated use of primals as weapons. They began to inch closer to a better understanding of the nature of our own concept creations and, more worryingly, how to enslave them. Lahabrea feared that were they to progress further, they would take the Star along dangerous courses of fate in their misplaced ambition and ignorance of the consequences of misusing such potent powers. Going into the space around our world, building Dalamud; these were feats that were beyond our plans, and dangerous in the extreme. Bahamut was contained because it could not be controlled, but it was also the final straw, from our perspective.”</em></p><p>“I should like to hear more about Bahamut sometime, and the dragons for that matter, but with regards to Xande, continue.”</p><p>He glanced at her a moment, tilting his head in curiousity, then continued.</p><p>
  <em>“It was why I assisted Amon with bringing Xande back; to provide them with what seemed to be a solution to their waning fortunes, but which in reality was the poisoned chalice of their doom. He was a man of many talents but was too driven by a desire for immortality to ever be more than a liability in the end.”</em>
</p><p>He grinned.</p><p><em>“Having tasted death once, he was even more eager to avoid it, and I was only too happy to assist. Who do you think planted the idea of consorting with voidsent lords in his mind</em>?”</p><p>She was seeing hints of a man she had known for so long, changed by so much. In some ways intriguing, in other ways disturbing. She studied him as they walked, wondering if she would have been this way, had she endured such times and burdens. Had things been different.</p><p>“You really have been at this a long time.”</p><p>“<em>Every hour, of every day, for endless ages. I see a glint of interest in your eyes. You enjoy listening to me speak of such things</em>?”</p><p>She paused.</p><p>“Certainly… though I struggle to see how I could commit to doing the same, even with what I know now.”</p><p>He shrugged.</p><p>“<em>Hmmph; I should think, even you, so incorruptible, would find reason to stoop to new lows should the need be dire. And for us, the need was always dire</em>.”</p><p>She shook her head.</p><p>“You assumed it was. I have never felt so, not about this. The Sound was urgent. All of what’s happened since? It just seems… messy to me. A worse fate in some ways than simply allowing our world to end.”</p><p>There was silence for a moment as they ascended another flight of stairs, only the continuous low humming of the crystalline walls giving off sound. She could not tell how he reacted, his face simply facing forward and up towards the next step. Unreadable.</p><p>She continued.</p><p>“I recall, when we talked about the volcano incident last night, that you told Elidibus it would be better to allow the volcano to take it’s natural course. Did you and the rest of the Convocation not feel so about the Star’s fate when that discordant abyss stared you all in the face?”</p><p>“<em>That was different, and even you knew that it was. That was not the natural order. You saw this before any of us and were the first to act! Foremost in our efforts at every turn, gone from Amaurot for months at a time. Our knowledge of the Sound largely came to rely on your outings collaborating the research we were able to perform in the city</em>.”</p><p>“And yet, you all chose to do what you did.”</p><p>“<em>Based on your own work and everything we tried, everything that failed to cease its inexorable march</em>.”</p><p>“But not my recommendation?”</p><p>“<em>You made your case. Your role would be undermined by a being such as Zodiark was envisioned to be. And you feared for what would come of its influence, and what would come after it. You wanted to fight something tangible. We chose expedience in desperation regardless. And you left</em>.”</p><p>“And was I not, in the end, correct? It was not only me who was undermined by this choice. You made a mockery of your own role, for example, playing with Xande as you did. He was and is far from the only one afraid of death. I know that I am. You shepherd the dead not unlike how I shepherd the living, and yet, you were only too open to the idea of playing with such fears to achieve a questionable end. After your previous actions had failed, time and again.”</p><p>Silence again. Their footsteps echoed off the walls as they turned another corner.</p><p>“I imagine that we are, all of us, afraid of death, yourself included.”</p><p>She glared at him.</p><p>“Why else place yourself within my stone?”</p><p>“<em>Because I wanted to be with you again</em>.”</p><p>He glared back at her, then his face softened.</p><p>“<em>Perhaps… perhaps I was not so far from losing hope as I had imagined, even at the end of this long and winding road</em>.”</p><p>She looked down at the floor, sighing. They’d be arguing about the past for a long time to come, she suspected. It came with the territory of this extraordinary situation. But he was also not alone in bearing blames.</p><p>“We’ve both made mistakes. I shouldn’t have left, when I did. Even with everything that was happening. I should have stayed, been a voice of reason, cooled tempers, maybe even changed my mind despite the risks. Even if the end result was all of this.”</p><p>She looked up into his yellow eyes, which stared back intently in turn.</p><p>“And I would be a hypocrite to claim my way of solving problems was any better, if it would have resulted in all our deaths. I cannot claim to have wanted that even with this alternative; not in truth. At least this way hope can remain, however distant on the horizon.”</p><p>“<em>You were not wrong to oppose our decision. I only wish we could have heeded your words, and not our fears</em>.”</p><p>“I was afraid too. In my own way, my actions were also guided by fear. Fear of losing those who lived outside our city, but also of losing you, and our dear friends. I am not so different from you, even if the ultimate outcome was different for us both.”</p><p>They stood near to the entrance to the Ocular now, its large doors ornate and heavy. He pushed them open, and allowed her to proceed first.</p><p>“<em>Fear was a thing we knew little of in Amaurot prior to the Final Days, blessed as we were with long lives of peace, hard won over so many ages of effort. We were that distant horizon, once, that our ancestors sought for countless years, and eventually succeeded in achieving. Losing hope is only to be expected, compared to that life now lost… to think upon it now..</em>.”</p><p>They stood in the middle of the room, there where he had revealed so much to her and her friends. He looked around, lost in thought for a moment.</p><p>“Is aught amiss?”</p><p>He snapped his fingers suddenly, startling her, and brought the Ocular to life. A starry expanse enveloped them, with the floor glowing its ornate blue sigils, and then, with a swift movement of his arms, he shifted the aether of this illusion towards an altogether different scene. A forest, rife with large coniferous pine trees, buzzing with life and the sounds of summer at midday, sun bright in the sky. Where was this place?</p><p>They now stood in a clearing, with the floor sigil still visible, etched on the soil at their feet. In the distance, strange bird cries could be heard, and the rustling of leaves.</p><p>“<em>Do you recognize this place</em>?”</p><p>“Not unlike the forests of Coerthas, prior to the Calamity. But larger in scale. What reason do you have for bringing us here?”</p><p>“<em>Wait but a moment, hero. I will coax that mind of yours to motion</em>.”</p><p>He began to move towards a bush, just on the edge of what would have been the Ocular’s space. After a moment rummaging through the bush, he retrieved a strange white flower, ribbed and fragrant, with a pink bloom of some description in its middle. He presented to her.</p><p>“<em>Think on this, and its scent. Remember anything</em>?”</p><p>It looked like a white rose, but somehow off. Different, like a rose that was more akin to a Nymeia lily, a flower she had loved as a child. Something about it conjured in her mind strange visions of domed rooms made of glass and pulsing with stranger sights, achieving things not unlike the Ocular itself in showing a capable caster illusions of their own devising, but with more efficacy and clarity. A demonstration hall of some kind, black but lit by innumerable lights.</p><p>“<em>This was the first concept you demonstrated there, to the Akadaemia, all those years ago, before any other. Something you dedicated to me, as I recall, even before you had met me in person. A gift, for those who have passed, that you bid me place on every grave and fallen soul. It was a gesture that stirred the hearts of many of our people, and brought you great attention, not least of which was that of my peers in the Convocation, and mine included</em>.”</p><p>The room resumed its former form, forest dissolving back into blue and gold, but the flower remained, white and pink, cupped in her hands.</p><p>“<em>In your era, Azeyma roses are all pinkish red, stained with the memory of your blood, shed during the Sundering. Drawing the pink of the concept’s blooming buds outwards and darkening their hue. A thing that persisted when so much of you did not. You planted these in the forests of our old world with Halmarut’s assistance and blessing, where they took root and survived all that came after, in one form or another, unto the present day. I have seen their like on every shard</em>.”</p><p>He placed his hands over hers, cupping her fingers over the flower gently.</p><p>“<em>When I chanced upon them on the Source, in the land that came to be called Coerthas, during my work among the Allagans, I was driven to such emotion that I needed to take time from my labours for several days. To find what peace, what hope, I could draw from a simple flower. That, even if I never would see you again, I would at least be able to cherish the memories of you that yet remained. So soon the call of duty coaxed me from my lamentation, but I would remember and sow these flowers where I could, when I could</em>.”</p><p>He stroked her left cheek, gloved hands warm to the touch under her hair. She closed her eyes, feeling memory and complex emotions well up and churn in her heart.</p><p>“<em>In truth, the flower also planted in my soul a dream; that, given that it had survived, perhaps some other piece of you had as well, something I could save. Someone</em>.”</p><p>He shifted his eyes from her, down to the flower, and then back up towards her eyes.</p><p>“<em>It took so many ages, and I had lost hope, or so I had thought, as I said when we were reunited those many days ago now</em>.”</p><p>“<em>But… talking with you now I have to wonder if, buried under so much pain, sorrow and manipulation, I still clung to a seed of hope that you planted in me, so long ago. That led to this</em>.”</p><p>He gestured to the stone, tucked in her innermost pouch, next to her heart, where now he placed his right hand.</p><p>“<em>I was surely tempered, during the summoning of Zodiark; where once I had been possessed of resolve to save our Star from it’s doom but misgivings over the method, I was reborn as a devoted servant of His will. I yet retained some measure of my will, as did we all who summoned Him, and moreso in we three who survived Unsundered after She laid Him low. But I was largely powerless to not do his bidding, reinforced by his ever-present heart in the form of Elidibus, who was devoted to duty and the first among us to form the plan for the Rejoinings and bring a return of our Lord</em>.”</p><p>“<em>And yet, I was capable of creating this thing, so unnecessary to the plan. To follow you and your friends rather than kill you. Of forming a phantom of your home, all so that you might remember. I came to see that I was following a different plan, as it were. Something you placed within me unknowingly, long ago. Hope borne of love. Something I knew the hint of, when I beheld these roses, and again when we met</em>.”</p><p>She was left without words, only able to gaze down at the flower and his hand in hers. Leaning into the other hand placed upon her heart. Rhythmic heartbeats echoing in their souls.</p><p>Finally, she managed to speak, and breathe.</p><p>“Hades… I wish you had not had to have endured all of this alone… all this time.”</p><p>She looked up into his eyes, several solitary tears passing along her blue skin.</p><p>He managed a brief smile, soft, as he fought back his own tears.</p><p>“<em>It is what it is, and in the past, my dear. I am just glad you are here now. That we are blessed with a beautiful day to begin again</em>.”</p><p>“However difficult it might be, and no matter the reconciliation required and whatever we might argue about. I would try regardless. You are worth the effort.”</p><p>They chuckled weakly, and strained a bit at their aether as each coiled their essence into the other, and sought to find some comfort in their shared stumbling towards something akin to what had been before. Despite their differences and struggles, they still shrank into insignificance next to all they had in common. And she would make up for lost time, if she was able. He could tell, and it was a treasure dear to him beyond words.</p><p>The rose disintegrated into blue particles; its purpose served. He would gather a real bouquet soon, he told himself, when time allowed, to give to her.</p><p>She would gather a real bouquet soon, she told herself, when time allowed, to give to him.</p><p>“<em>Certainly, I am not used to being second guessed and chastised, but it is a refreshing change from the simpering fools I knew in Garlemald</em>.”</p><p>“Speaking of, do you recall a man by the name of Cid nan Garlond?”</p><p>They moved together towards the Exarch’s portal to the Source, only begrudgingly returning their composure and loosing their hands from one another.</p><p>“<em>Son of Midas, that inventive soul who was so integral to the advancement we saw in the later years of my life as Solus. A true genius with magitek and responsible for many of our victories by virtue of sheer technological mastery surpassing the abilities of our numerous foes. I recall learning of his fate in the Bozja Incident and knew once more that Garlemald was teetering close to the edge of becoming another Allag; overly eager to embrace things beyond it’s ken such as Bahamut, all for the sake of victory. I knew not however that the primal had laid it’s claws on him and Nael. I was in and out of true awareness in that mortal shell until I was dead and then reborn, roused back by Elidibus and my ‘son’</em>.”</p><p>“His son Cid is my longtime friend and a man who got me out of plenty of sticky binds in my career. I bring him up because we’ll be meeting him shortly, and I suspect he’ll be the most… interesting person to introduce you to out of all my immediate compatriots.”</p><p>“<em>Oh I have no doubt you’ll find some perverse enjoyment in spiriting me around to all and sundry and talking about how you’re an item with the former Emperor-Ascian, is that it</em>? <em>‘Really bagged a winner this time Warrior of Light!’ and all that</em>.”</p><p>She smiled a mischievous smile as they placed both their hands on the portal and initiated their passage through the rift. Still able to speak in that space, she decided to change the subject to another Garlean.</p><p>“Do you recall your ‘great-grandson’?”</p><p>“<em>I knew you would ask about him eventually. I was actually planning to ask you the same question</em>.”</p><p>They stared at each other a bit baffled as they drifted along.</p><p>“<em>Let us just call him… another uncontrolled variable</em>.”</p><p>“That’s your answer. Really?”</p><p>“<em>Yes. I knew him less than Varis, and could not read his aether as easily as those of my other family members and servants. He was away from me for much of his youth, and upon his adult summers was often on campaign as was expected of one of the royal station. To solidify his place</em>.”</p><p>“So you don’t know how or why he is the way he is.”</p><p>“<em>No. I can only offer conjecture. He was Varis’ mismanagement, or something altogether of his own making. I cannot say. I do know that he was quite proficient at battle, but aside from that unremarkable to me in my forme-</em>“</p><p>It was in this moment that they realized they had made the journey to the Source, scarcely noticing the void in their midst as they talked, and then the presence of two dumbstruck individuals, the Ironworks engineer and Son of Saint Coinach in the Syrcus Trench.</p><p>“<em>Ah… aha. Good morning to you both</em>.”</p><p>The Son was able to stammer out a response.</p><p>“A-and a fine morning to you… sir?”</p><p>The engineer continued:</p><p>“And my lady Warrior… I was uncertain from Master G’raha’s telling of it that you’d be able to bring guests over from that other world? Were you able to find a means my lady?”</p><p>“Uhh….” She had forgotten these two kept vigil over her path to the First, and that they would be the first to witness Solus, Emet, upon her arrival. Without pause, he characteristically moved into the fore, however, and addressed the two men.</p><p>“<em>A pleasure to meet you both this fine day. I am a Garlean defector not unlike some of your peers, recently come to Eorzea by the grace of my companion here to assist her with her work</em>.” He reached out a gloved hand in offering. Each man looked to one another and then, after a moment, shook it one after the other in turn, scarcely noting it's indistinct qualities. He beamed a smile and nodded.</p><p>“<em>Now, not to be rude but, might we enquire as to the exit? My friend and I are in quite a hurry to make Master Cid’s acquaintance you see. I am an old friend of his, and would much like to speak with him again. I have not seen him in some time</em>.”</p><p>“Ahh… well, any friend of the Chief and the Warrior of Light is a friend of ours. Course, come with us, we can show you to the boat ride to Rev’ Toll.”</p><p>“<em>My sincerest gratitude</em>.”</p><p>Neither man seemed to recognize Solus, and as such took her at her word that he was a friend, and someone the Chief would know. His Garlean eye being visible lended credence to a story he spun of being yet another defector, and one who had been assisting the Warrior with interdimensional experiments at her request, hence his arrival in this manner with her. It was plausible enough that even she believed it for a moment.</p><p>When at last they reached the far shore of Mor Dhona, and were out of earshot of the others who had gawked and gazed at their passing and his strange attire, she spoke.</p><p>“That was… rather deft of you. I had forgotten about the Trench detail.”</p><p>“<em>One does not become a ruler of men without deft charisma and an easy smile, hero. You should try it sometime; give that nagging neck of yours a break.” </em></p><p>He grinned at her.</p><p><em>“Memory is not the only thing I have to impart on you it seems</em>.”</p><p>She narrowed her eyes a moment before continuing.</p><p>“This is certainly going to be more interesting than I expected.”</p><p>“<em>I admit, even I am beginning to be excited at the prospect of ‘blowing some minds’ as it were. Come, show me to this ‘Revenant’s Toll’ I’ve heard so much about</em>.”</p><p>She beckoned him up the crystal pocketed slopes away from the lake, and towards the castle on the horizon.</p>
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